your family update
You Backed them and things began to change
“My parents committed suicide when I was a teenager and I had to get married eight days later because we didn’t have money for me to stay home or finish school.”
Sasitha is 26 and lives in Mandavathadi in the East of Sri Lanka with her husband, her two daughters aged seven and one-and-a-half, and her grandmother. Her husband works as a labourer in Colombo. He comes home sometimes every fifteen days, sometimes once a month.
What he earns is just enough for food, so Sasitha stretches what they have and cuts expenses. On low-income days she makes small meals for the family. When there is no work during the rainy season, she buys food on credit from the local shop and pays it back when they have some money.
Recently she had a stomach operation while her husband was away. She still managed everything at home and made sure her daughters continued their schooling. This is important to Sasitha.
Sasitha’s childhood was hard. Her father worked abroad for a while but didn’t send them money. When he was home, he drank a lot and fought with the mother. Her parents died by suicide when she was a teenager. She had to get married 8 days later while she was still studying because her family said she had to. She couldn’t even finish school.
Today, Sasitha works hard to take care of her family, makes sure her children have food, and keeps their schooling going. She wants her daughters to finish school and get good jobs, maybe government jobs so they have steady work.
Right now, she keeps the household running and makes sure her daughters have what they need to grow and learn. Her hopes for the future are simple; being able to eat without borrowing food and keep the children in school so they can complete their education and have a good life.